Friday, February 13, 2026

02/13 Links Pt2: Think of it as 251 Nancys; The Fall of Europe; Three men jailed in UK over Islamic State-inspired plot to kill hundreds of Jews; James Van Der Beek, dead at 48, had longstanding ties to Israel

From Ian:

Think of it as 251 Nancys
Continuous reporting has filled television airways and made headlines in the United States about the kidnapping in Tucson, Ariz., of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie. Practically every news outlet has devoted time to each twist and turn of this story, which began on Feb. 1. It is a full-throated whodunit garnering viewers’ attention, and seemingly all have been caught up these past two weeks in worry and concern for this 84-year-old woman.

A little more than two years ago, on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel was invaded by thousands of Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas. They invaded the southern border and proceeded to murder 1,200 people, injure some 2,000 others, and kidnap 251 men, women and children, dragging them into Gaza. The vicious perpetrators provided ample evidence of their ghoulish actions with their own GoPro cameras.

Think of it as 251 Nancys.

Israel went to war for the next two years—not just with Hamas in Gaza, but with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Iran itself. On Oct. 13, 2025, the last of the living hostages returned to Israel. On Jan. 26, the last hostage body of Ron Gvili, 24, was brought home.

In Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and throughout the Jewish Diaspora, the fate of the kidnapped became a gut-wrenching campaign. They were Israel’s 251 Nancys. Jews worldwide wore yellow ribbons and dog tags to show their solidarity. When visitors arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport, photos of the captives stared back, their beautiful faces pleading for help. These same images were displayed in every corner across the country. The countdown to their return was tracked down to the second.

Those rescued alive were celebrated as heroes, and for families whose relatives were buried, thousands attended funerals to grieve along with them.

These same images of the hostages were desecrated on streets across the globe by the same keffiyeh-wearing mobs that rioted in support of the terrorists and against Israelis and Jews everywhere. At least, in the case of Nancy Guthrie, nobody is screaming for her people’s destruction and accusing her family of genocide.

Yes, some of the hostages were Nancy Guthrie’s age. And there were many more young people. There were babies even—the redheaded Ariel and Kfir Bibas babies, who at 10 months and 4 years were just beginning their lives. The victims were light-skinned and dark-skinned. Some weren’t even Jewish, but Arab, Bedouin, Druze. Some weren’t Israeli, but guests and workers from abroad. Some had helped Palestinians in distress for years, some employed Gazans in their homes and fields, and some had been at a music festival, dancing and having a good time.
The Fall of Europe
From Paris to Brussels to Amsterdam and elsewhere it is happening across all the West, but still: What explains this bizarre mental mass resignation, so to speak, that affects a country known since the blitz for its tough spirit of resistance? On Oct. 2, when a 35-year-old Syrian-born British citizen, called Jihad al-Shamie attacked the worshippers of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester killing two and injuring three before being shot by police, the whole country seemed briefly shocked, but nothing ensued, either. Meanwhile, in December 2024, one of the most influential medical journals worldwide, The BMJ, published an essay signed by 25 academics arguing that banning female genital mutilation—an illegal practice in the U.K. since 1985—is harmful and stigmatizing toward migrant communities.

Meanwhile, the city of London and the Labour Party, have already both adopted a definition of Islamophobia that is now being discussed in an all-party parliamentary group, and according to which, if passed, even mentioning the grooming gangs will be considered offensive and therefore fall under the law restricting free speech. This law, called the “noncrime hate incidents law,” specifies that police can knock at your door for any statement you may have made, deemed “offensive” or threatening by a self-designated “victim.” It is under this law that the comedian Graham Linehan was arrested last September at Heathrow for inciting violence after a social media post about trans. Even worse, last October, the Telegraph posted a video showing two policemen after they had arrested a man whose Magen David had “antagonized” pro-Palestinian protesters. And in November, six police officers rang at the home of Rosalind Levine, 47, to ask her about emails she had sent her daughter’s school in which she offered to help arrange for Holocaust survivors to address pupils—an interaction with the school presented as “harassment.”

Great Britain is also the only Western country to tolerate no less than 85 active Sharia courts on its soil, an investigation by The Times found last summer. Also named councils, these courts rule over civil matters such as marriages (100,000 marriages are believed to have been performed by them, a quarter of which involve polygamy) and attract an increasing number of Muslims from across Europe and North America. Birmingham alone, whose population is roughly 30% Muslim (four-and-a-half times the national average), counts three of them.

Whatever the endemic reasons may be for that state of things, like elsewhere, Oct. 7 has worsened it. And here again, Birmingham serves as an accurate template for the rest of the country: In July 2024, in the city where the median gross annual pay is just £33,952 (against a national average of £37,617), where the majority of jobs are in social care, wholesale and retail trade, and where employment stands at just 66%, compared to the English average of 76%, voters have sent to Parliament two of the five MPs that English media call the “independent Gaza MPs” because Gaza was their sole electoral platform and program. One of those MPs is Ayoub Khan, the man who launched the first petition in Birmingham against the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans coming to town.

“Probably for the first time in England, certainly for generations, you have people elected with a specific religious slant,” Paul Stott, head of security and extremism at the London-based think tank Policy Exchange told me. “Previously, Muslims had voted heavily for the Labour Party, for a range of other parties as well, but predominantly Labour. Here the Muslim candidates have been able to run against Labour and indeed win quite comfortably, if you look at some of the results. It’s a challenge to our liberal democracy.”

To my knowledge, there are no specific studies so far on the role played in those elections by the Sharia courts. But Emma Schubart, who is data and insights manager at the Adam Smith Institute, confirmed to me that the win for these five Islamic MPs “is not just a demographic matter. What happens is that they are just mobilizing the Muslim population very, very well. They have a community where women can’t go to the polls unaccompanied, for instance, and they make use of that. They also have a lot of multifamily homes and they send in a package of mail-in ballots and lots of votes from just one address. The decisive factor is concentrated mobilization, not sheer population head count. The risk that it happens on a larger scale next May in cities like London, Bradford or Birmingham is absolutely real.”

And this is where the Villa Park game story takes its full, national significance. Earlier this month The Telegraph revealed that, among the eight mosques that WMP officials said they spoke to in order to assess the risks represented by the Israeli fans, included were the Al-Habib mosque, the Jami mosque, and above all, the Green Lane mosque, which also houses a Sharia court. In the first mosque, days after Oct. 7 a preacher delivered a sermon titled “Knowing the Facts” in which he claimed Jews were planning to “become sole rulers of the world” and recommended the reading of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; in the second mosque, in November 2023 another preacher delivered a prayer in Arabic to call for the death of the Jews; and in the Green Lane mosque, fittingly enough, a third preacher spoke about the World Cup, arguing that Jews “keep the people busy with sports and games” and “that’s why all those people make all that money.” Any of those could have passed along the Game Over Israel document. (On Jan. 6, senior police officers from the WMP facing the Home Affairs Committee admitted that their decision to ban the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was partly based on intelligence that Muslim vigilante groups were arming and planning to attack the Israelis; instead of acting upon the potential attackers, they choose to focus on alleged threats posed by the potential victims.)

In July 2024, newly elected Birmingham MP Iqbal Mohamed said during his victory speech: “We must take over the whole of Birmingham. The whole of West Midlands. The whole of the U.K. We will not be taken for granted, and we will win.”

Since then, he and his four colleagues have helped resurrect former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and, together, they have created a new formation called Your Party, plagued ever since by personal rivalries and hopeless ideological chasms. Does it mean that Iqbal Mohamed was wrong? A grim future will soon tell.
It doesn’t matter whether Americans call themselves ‘Zionists’
Politics over faith
It is a basic truth of 21st-century American life that politics now plays the role that religion used to have in their lives. So, it is unsurprising that a not insignificant percentage of the majority of Jews who are neither religious nor politically conservative would be greatly influenced by the way the base of the Democratic Party has embraced the toxic doctrines of critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism. They demonize Israel and falsely label Jews as “white oppressors.”

Indeed, Israel’s critics have always pointed to the fact that the vast majority of Jews have been political liberals who generally opposed sectarian causes in favor of universalist ones and also voted for Democrats, who were often critical of the Israeli government. At the same time, the majority of Israelis are Jews of color who came from North Africa and other parts of the Middle East, not exactly the epitome of white Europeans.

What that narrative of the study left out is the fact that poll after poll proves that huge majorities of Jews still consider Israel to be very important to them. They may not have thought well of Israel’s leaders, and neither knew nor understood much about why the majority of the Jewish state’s voters had long since discarded any backing for a “two-state solution” that the U.S. foreign-policy establishment long asserted was the only answer to the conflict. But most of these Jews still support Israel’s struggle for survival against hostile Arab and Muslim forces determined to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet.

A boost in affiliation
The good news about the JFNA survey is that it validates the widespread perception that the shock of the atrocities committed by Palestinian Arabs on Oct. 7, and the way they incited a wave of antisemitism around the globe, has influenced many Jews to come back to Jewish life. The results show that nearly half of all Jews, including many who don’t label themselves Zionists, are part of a parallel swell of greater engagement in Jewish life since the atrocities of Oct. 7. That includes an increase in affiliation, synagogue and event attendance, and a greater connection with and an interest in Israel.

That shouldn’t lessen worries about assimilation. Nor should the pro-Israel community be complacent about the way that a biased media—and a combination of woke left-wing and alt-right antisemitism—has worked to erode support for the Jewish state. This fact alone has served to increase the number of those who identify with or are willing to believe the lies spread by its genocidal foes, even among those who call themselves Jews.

But the idea that anti-Zionists, whose views seek to strip Jews of rights that no one would think of denying to any other people and thus are indistinguishable from antisemitism, now represent the majority of American Jews is absolutely not true. The organized Jewish world may be largely obsolete, and led by organizations and leaders who have failed to respond adequately to the challenges of the moment. And the labels that were once meaningful in determining the views of most people are just as out of date. But the trauma of Oct. 7, and subsequent increase in global hatred and even violence, has not convinced most Jews to abandon the Jewish state. American Jewry may be in demographic decline, yet the overwhelming majority of those who choose to remain part of the Jewish people still stand with Israel.


Israeli hostage reveals how she survived being tortured and sexually assaulted 'almost every single day' during 482 days in Gaza - with only the thought of her kidnapped boyfriend keeping her going
Over a year has passed since the world saw the terrified face of Arbel Yehoud forced to walk through a baying mob of Hamas terrorists to freedom.

Only now does the 30-year-old feel strong enough to reveal that this sickening spectacle was just the last act in a monstrous campaign of abuse unleashed throughout her 482 days held in Gaza.

Motivated to talk after seeing fellow captive Romi Gonen, 25, bravely reveal how she was sexually assaulted by her captors, Arbel tells me this is what she endured 'almost every single day in captivity'.

Held alone, it was so bad she tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions.

'I tried to end it three times,' Arbel says. 'I felt like I couldn’t go on. There were moments when I thought it was the only way out.'

But she was kept alive by the love for her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, 28, whom she was torn from after they were kidnapped together.

'Every time, I remembered Ariel, and that gave me the strength to keep breathing,' she says of her suicidal thoughts.

Understandably, Arbel does not wish to go into further details of this abuse. But she does tell of how she was held alone in solitary confinement, starved, and psychologically, sexually and physically abused, breaking two of her ribs. Above all, though, it was being separated from the love of her life that most filled her with despair.

Incredibly, for their first few months the couple managed to smuggle love notes to one another before guards snuffed out their contact.

When she was freed on January 30 last year, it was the knowledge that she was leaving Ariel behind in Gaza that terrified her more than any gunman could.

But after she travelled the world campaigning to free him, he was finally released on October 13 last year.

Now Arbel and Ariel detail how their extraordinary love got them through 15 months in hell.

Paying tribute to the bravery of Romi, who detailed how she was assaulted by three men in the first weeks of her capture, Ariel says: 'Since I returned, I haven’t been able to watch the stories of other survivors.

'But when I saw the promo for Romi’s story, it felt different. It was hard for me — but in the end, I decided to watch the segment about her.

'I realised that what Romi describes experiencing once is what I went through almost every single day in captivity.'


Arsen Ostrovsky: After Bondi, the anti-Israel protests against Herzog shame Australia
Let us also dispense with the notion that these protests were ever about human rights or justice. If these activists genuinely cared about peace, perhaps they might show solidarity with the courageous young Iranian men and women risking their lives against a tyrannical regime. But that does not appear to trend well on Instagram.

They do not care about Iranians. They do not care about Palestinians and innocent civilians in Gaza, who are indeed worthy of our compassion.

They care about two things only: indulging in unadulterated Jew-hatred and manufacturing confrontation for social media.

By contrast, the overwhelming majority of Australians, who have stood with the Jewish community after Bondi, represent the very best of this country. They understand that standing against antisemitism is not a “Jewish issue” but an Australian one. They also understand that supporting Israel’s right to exist and defend itself is entirely consistent with advocating for peace and dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Australia is a nation built on tolerance, freedom and respect for one another. The grotesque scenes outside Sydney Town Hall, and a number of other cities across Australia, were the antithesis of those values. They do not reflect mainstream Australia. They reflect a radical fringe intoxicated by hatred and emboldened by the failure to clearly call them out.

Despite these loud, aggressive voices, President Herzog’s visit offered both the healing we so deeply yearned, and a powerful reaffirmation of the enduring and inextricable bond between the Jewish state and the Jewish people in the diaspora, making clear that hatred will not divide us

The choice before Australia, therefore, is clear. Do we allow the loudest and most extreme voices to dictate our national conversation? Or do we, as a nation, say “enough is enough” to those who spread hatred under the guise of activism?

Bondi taught us a devastating lesson about what happens when violent rhetoric metastasises unchecked. We cannot afford to ignore that lesson again.
The world knows how they died. Their families share how they lived
The singer who couldn’t resist a microphone. The mother with Bond girl good looks. The father who woke at dawn to ride alongside his paperboy son. A lolly man, an ideas man, a Holocaust survivor, and a big sister who daydreamed of capybaras.

These are the 15 innocent people killed by two gunmen in a terror attack at Bondi Beach that terrible day, December 14, 2025. Their deaths are known to the world, but their lives are worth remembering.

Their loved ones are the custodians of their memories. Here we have compiled interviews, testimonials, eulogies, family photos, and tenderly crafted words that these memory-keepers were willing to share.


White House Signed Off on Ouster of Religious Liberty Commissioner Who Used Hearing to Bash Israel
The White House signed off on the dismissal of Carrie Prejean Boller, a member of its Religious Liberty Commission who hijacked a hearing on Monday to bash Israel, defend Candace Owens, and argue that her Catholic faith prevents her from supporting the Jewish state, two sources familiar told the Washington Free Beacon.

Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick (R.) issued a statement on Wednesday announcing Prejean Boller’s removal from the commission.

"Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission," Patrick wrote in a statement on X. "No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue. This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision."

In response, Prejean Boller argued that she was still a member of the commission.
BLM 2.0? Muslim Charity Launches ‘Internal Review’ After Tax Forms Show Millions Raised for Gaza ‘Relief’ Flowed to Anti-Israel Influencer
A prominent Muslim charity is conducting an "internal review" of its relationship with anti-Israel influencer Khaled Beydoun as it faces growing questions over $2 million it paid to Beydoun for "relief" initiatives that were advertised as providing water and other aid to the Gaza Strip.

Human Appeal USA, which bills itself as "America's leading Muslim humanitarian organization," said this month that it "paused our engagement" with Beydoun, a law professor at Arizona State University who has said Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack warranted "considerable celebration."

The group, an American offshoot of the U.K.-based Human Appeal, launched the internal review after a firestorm over the group’s 2024 tax filing, which listed a $2 million payment to Beydoun for "fundraising" services through LaunchGood, a crowdsourcing platform for Muslim fundraisers. Beydoun raised $7 million for the group for initiatives such as "Water for Gaza," which promised to "develop a desalination plant" to provide "safe drinking water to up to 60,000 people for 15 years."

The tax disclosures drew outrage over both the size of the payment to Beydoun and concerns that Human Appeal USA used donations for something other than relief in Gaza. Beydoun claimed he received no "personal payment" from Human Appeal USA and instead "directed funds" to an anti-Islamophobia organization he claims to lead. He also blamed "clerical error[s]" for his name appearing on Human Appeal USA’s tax filings.
South African school apologises after refusing to play tennis match against Jewish pupils
A prestigious independent girls school in Johannesburg has apologised to a Jewish school after failing to turn up to a planned tennis match after some parents raised “concerns” about the fixture.

It emerged this week that Roedean South Africa – the sister school to the British boarding school in Brighton of the same name – “stood up” pupils at the Jewish King David Linkfield school earlier this month, despite the headteacher apparently assuring her counterpart the team would show up.

A letter sent by King David to parents and staff earlier this week stated that the principal, Lorraine Srage, received a phone call from her counterpart at Roedean, Phuti Mogale, one day before the match to explain that a “group of parents” had raised concerns about the fixture, and that they “did not want the match to proceed on the basis that they would be playing a Jewish school”.

During the call, Mogale reassured Srage that the match would still go ahead but an hour later King David received an email from the head of sport at Roedean explaining that the decision had been made to forfeit the match due to “other academic commitments”, according to the letter.

Yet in Srage’s earlier phone call with Mogale, “there was no mention made of any ‘prior school commitments’ nor of any ‘academic workshops’ that would conflict with the fixture the following day,” the letter read.

Later that day, according to the letter, Mogale called Srage again, this time to inform her that issue had been “resolved” and that the match would go ahead after all. It was, the letter stated, on that basis that the King David pupils turned up to play the match the following day – “only to be stood up” after all.

Following the furore, King David has shared another letter sent yesterday by Roedean's chairman, Dale Quaker, apologising for the cancellation.

"Roedean recognises that it is our obligation to ensure that religious and any other form of discrimination do not come into school sport,” the letter states.

"We acknowledge that our actions which led to the cancellation of the match with King David were deeply hurtful to the Jewish community and sincerely apologise.

"We recognise the impact this situation has had on both our communities and are committed to reflecting on the internal circumstances that led to this outcome," it adds.

A letter sent to Rodean staff and parents earlier this week by the school’s leaders said the school “strongly refutes the allegations of antisemitism arising from the cancellation” of the match. It also appears to suggest that poor communication between the schools was to blame for the incident.
Debate surrounds children’s book at Baltimore public library said to glorify terror
The presence of five copies of Golbarg Bashi’s alphabet book “P is for Palestine,” which has a page on “I is for Intifada,” at the Baltimore County Public Library is drawing criticism from local Jews.

One of the copies is at the system’s branch in Pikesville, Md., which is home to a large Orthodox Jewish community.

Shelly Hettleman, a Maryland state senator, stated on Feb. 11 that she believes that “our library system is fantastic and should host a wide variety of books and materials.”

“I do not support book bans. When I learned about this children’s book, I shared my concerns with board members that the term mentioned below is interpreted as advocating violence by the vast majority of the Jewish community,” she stated. “I don’t pretend to speak for the entire community, so I will speak for myself by sharing my concerns with BCPL.”

The state senator shared a screenshot of the “I” page, which stated that “Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grownup.”

Aviva Rosenberg, a youth services librarian in New Jersey, told JNS that the “Pikesville library does a lot to support the Jewish community directly, and for people to come and treat them like terror supporters is unconscionable.”

“The same standards that allow books like this allow books about Israel to be included in their collections,” she said, noting that the library’s policy includes “presenting a variety of topics and viewpoints, even ones that are not commonly accepted.”

The Baltimore library “has a significant number of kids’ books about Israel” and often holds activities at times when public schools are in session, but Jewish schools are closed for holidays or vacation, she told JNS. “They do not deserve an outpouring of rage over this book.”
Former Penn President Liz Magill, Who Resigned in Disgrace After Disastrous Anti-Semitism Testimony, Named Dean of Georgetown Law
Liz Magill, the former University of Pennsylvania president who resigned in disgrace after arguing that calls for the genocide of Jews could be permissible under campus rules, has been named dean of Georgetown University Law Center.

Georgetown announced the move in a Friday statement that lauded Magill as "an accomplished administrator who brings a values-driven vision to Georgetown Law." It touted her "[n]ew [c]hapter" at the school after she "stepped down as president" at Penn "following the response to her congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus in the fall of 2023."

That testimony saw Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) ask Magill if "calling for the genocide of Jews" constituted bullying or harassment. "It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman," Magill responded.

Magill faced intense criticism in the wake of the hearing. Ross Stevens, an alumnus of Penn's Wharton School of business and founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, withdrew a $100 million gift from the school two days after the hearing, citing Magill's "permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez-faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students."

Magill was already facing an exodus of top donors going into the hearing due to her handling of the Palestine Writes festival—a university-sponsored event that brought a number of prominent anti-Semites to campus—as well as her response to Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, which occurred shortly after the festival.

Magill defended Palestine Writes, saying the university "fiercely support[s] the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission." At the same time, she moved to revoke tenure from a controversial law professor, Amy Wax, who criticized diversity, equity, and inclusion officials. In the wake of Oct. 7, meanwhile, Magill released a statement that equated Hamas's terror attack with Israel's "escalating" response and did not include the word "terrorism."
Jewish social workers in U.S., Israel, Canada urge international body against expelling Israel
The largest global membership organization for social workers from around the world will vote next week on whether to expel Israel’s leading social work body, sparking a feverish advocacy campaign by Jewish and Israeli practitioners to urge members to vote against the measure.

The vote by the International Federation of Social Workers is scheduled for Feb. 18, and it comes after several members in the IFSW complained that some Israeli social workers served in combat roles in the Israel Defense Forces during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The IFSW alleges that military service violates social workers’ professional and ethical commitments to nonviolence.

The Israeli Union of Social Workers — and its allies in the United States and Canada — argue that such a request ignores Israel’s mandatory draft policy, holds Israel to a different standard from other member nations and singles out the only Jewish state. The leader of the Israeli body said it would be “entirely unimaginable” for Israeli social workers to ask not to serve in combat, noting that it would come across as “elitist” and “mark our union as illegitimate in the eyes of both the government and the public.”

“If we believed that removing the [IUSW] from the IFSW would promote peace, guarantee the rights and security of both nations — we ourselves would vote in favor,” IUSW’s chair, Inbal Hermoni, wrote in a letter urging countries to vote against the measure. “This is a noble goal. However, this is not the case.”

The IFSW comprises 141 country members — including Russia, Iran and China — representing more than 3 million people. The only other country to ever face a similar punishment from the IFSW was South Africa, which was suspended during the era of apartheid rule.

Last year, the IFSW voted to formally censure Israel — the second time the body had done so.

“This position was grounded in our ethical mandate: social workers are called to uphold human dignity, promote peace, and work for social justice. Active participation in combat contradicts these principles,” IFSW President Joachim Mumba, who is from Zambia, said last year.
American University bans Students for Justice in Palestine on campus until 2027
American University has suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine through November 2027, the D.C. private school confirmed to Jewish Insider.

The organization was suspended for “violations to university policies,” an AU spokesperson told JI, but did not elaborate on details of the violation.

AU’s chapter of SJP has been under disciplinary probation since April 2024, following a silent indoor protest in which about 30 demonstrators held signs calling on the university to end support of Israel. The university banned indoor protests earlier that year when it updated its speech and expression policies in response to a federal civil rights complaint from Jewish students. SJP was previously under cease and desist status, the university told JI.

Last February, AU abruptly canceled an SJP event titled “Debunking Zionist Lies Workshop.”

The event, which was shut down just hours before it was set to begin, was advertised online with a photo of a masked individual wielding a slingshot and the call to “Smash Zionism,” which the university said contained “imagery and language that contributed to the safety concerns.”

“This event did not undergo the necessary safety assessment,” AU wrote in a statement at the time.

Stephanie Parnes, a sophomore in AU’s School of International Service, expressed hope that “this suspension helps move us toward a more peaceful campus, one where pro-Israel students don’t feel like they have to hide who they are to feel safe or accepted.”
Separating the Columbia community’s public and private responses to antisemitism
On my first day of class this semester, I was hatefully verbally assaulted outside of the Jewish Theological Seminary. While this incident has been announced and circulated publicly, I have, until now, remained anonymous. I’m writing today simply to share my firsthand account, as I believe the full context of the experience—and the University’s response—is an important part of the conversation that should be shared.

Over the past two years, every time I’ve returned home to my tight-knit community in Brookline, Massachusetts, I have met the same line of questioning: What is the climate of antisemitism at Columbia? Have you been a victim of the hate crimes we see in the news?

My response has become a well-rehearsed script. I speak about the intensity regarding antisemitism on campus, and the people I know who have been targeted—including my sister, BC ’24, who was told to “go back to Poland,” and my community, which was called a group of “inbreds,” “Nazi bitches,” a “genocidal maniac,” and told to “stop killing children.”

Despite these external sources of aggression, as a student in the Joint Program with JTS and an economics major at Columbia, the duality of attending an institution that proudly supports Israel while taking classes that remain largely apolitical has been conducive to my learning and growth. I always felt fortunate to be a part of a large and vibrant Jewish community, to be stimulated with a rigorous Jewish curriculum, in a city as deeply Jewish as New York City.

Despite the tension and aggression that ensued in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack, I still felt Columbia was a safe place where Jewish life could flourish, and a place where I could thrive socially, academically, and receive the basic emotional support that all students need. I felt fortunate that I was relatively shielded from campus hostilities, but felt deeply for those who were outcasted, or explicitly targeted for their Jewish identities and support of Israel.

When I was hatefully verbally assaulted outside of JTS on the first day of classes of the spring 2026 semester, I questioned this sense of safety for the first time. When I left the Seminary at around 12:40 p.m., wearing my yarmulke, a man that I had never seen before aggressively approached me, repeatedly yelling, “You cheated on God,” and “Kill yourself.” When I asked why I would do such a thing, he screamed, “Because you’re a fucking Jew!”


Taking action against Wikipedia: Why #WikiSux
When Wikipedia was founded in 2001, the intent may have been the idealistic creation of a free online source of objective, readily available information with the goal of “general education” to democratize the concept of an encyclopedia and help spread knowledge in the world.

Sadly, a quarter of a century later, Wikipedia has strayed far from these high-falutin’ ideals. Like 180 degrees.

If it ever was a trusted source of objective information and knowledge, Wikipedia has since devolved into a cesspit of disinformation, misinformation, agitprop and pseudointellectual (and unintellectual) anti-Jewish racism.

Journalists like Aaron Bandler and Ashley Rindsberg, along with X/Twitter accounts like WikiBias have meticulously documented and exposed Wikipedia’s utter lack of objectivity and credibility when it comes to certain subjects like Israel, Jewish history (and to an extent, history in general) and Jewish identity, among others.

There are a number of reasons for Wikipedia’s descent into the realm of hate propaganda, including internal rules and protocols that lead to manipulation and biased entries.

Unfortunately, Wikipedia’s governance board and rules authorities refuse to address these issues in any meaningful fashion. Some of the problems are structural: Wikipedia uses a system whereby content is managed by anonymous editors. Sunshine, as they say, is the best disinfectant, and unless the veil of anonymity is pierced, it is virtually impossible to uncover the hidden motives of bad actors who attempt to use Wikipedia to promote false narratives and/or ideological agendas.


Iran’s military degraded by 12-day war with Israel, but still has significant capabilities
With one American carrier strike group already in the Middle East and another apparently on its way as US President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear program, fears are rising of the outbreak of another war that could spread into a regional conflict.

The 12-day Israel-Iran war last year appeared to cripple key elements of Iran’s military, yet left its capabilities far from neutralized — a distinction that looms large as tensions rise again.

If hostilities erupt again, the risk of a broader protracted conflict returns, especially if Iran’s leadership sees the fight as one for its existence. Open skies

The June 13-24 war started when Israel launched strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program and top military officials, saying it was responding to an existential threat posed by the nuclear program as well as Iran’s massive ballistic missile array. The United States joined the conflict, hitting three nuclear sites with massive “bunker-buster” bombs dropped from B-2 stealth bombers that flew their mission from their home base in Missouri.

It was a risky move for Trump, who has criticized his predecessors for involving the US in “stupid wars,” but Iran responded weakly to the US attack, with a limited missile attack on an American military base in Qatar that it warned Washington of in advance, and which caused no casualties. Tehran and Israel then both agreed to a ceasefire.

Israel was able to significantly degrade Iran’s air defenses with airstrikes and covert attacks from teams on the ground. Iran, presumably aware that its older F-14 and MiG-29 fighters were no match for the fifth-generation American F-35 stealth fighters and other aircraft flown by Israel, also never sent its air force into action.

That left the skies clear for Israel to carry out waves of attacks, and for the US to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities and get out of Iranian airspace without the B-2 bombers ever being fired upon.

If hostilities resume, that scenario is likely to repeat, said Sascha Bruchmann, a defense analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain.

“In practical terms, in reductionist terms, the sky is open for American and Israeli planes,” he said. “The problem is how to defend the region from the retaliation.”


Manchester police chief: ‘Jews put up with a way of life nobody else has to’
Jewish communities in the country “put up with a way of life that nobody else has to put up with”, a police chief has said.

Sir Stephen Watson, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said Jews “have more justification to be fearful than anybody else”, which he said needed to be addressed.

He spoke out following Friday’s sentencing of two men who planned a so-called Islamic State-inspired gun attack on a mass gathering of Jews in the Manchester area.

The plot of Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, was thwarted when they unknowingly laid bare their scheme to an undercover operative.

Their terrorist preparations were unconnected to the October attack at the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, where two worshippers, Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed.

Sir Stephen said: “We have seen the terrorist atrocity in Manchester at a synagogue on Yom Kippur. We have seen the events on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

“We are seeing the manifestation of hatred moving beyond our shores globally and this is a threat to all of us. It is a threat to our Jewish communities and if our Jewish communities are under threat we are all under threat.

“And we all owe to our Jewish friends and neighbours a steadfast duty to stand with them in all circumstances, and that is certainly what we do as part of Greater Manchester Police, the counter-terrorism network and beyond.”

He went on: “I think it’s a very important point to reflect upon that Jewish children are the only children in our country who day-to-day go to school behind large fences guarded by people with vizzy jackets and where there are routine police patrols in and around those areas.

“Our Jewish communities put up with a way of life in our country today that nobody else has to put up with. I do think there is something very significant in that, something very significant in the realisation of it and we all, I think, need to question ourselves afresh as the dynamic continues to change as to what we are doing continues to be adequate.

“But of course the best course of form of defence in this consequence is to attack those who are intent on doing harm to our Jewish friends and neighbours, because it is still the case that it is a tiny minority of people so radicalised, so full of hatred that they would do these sorts of things.
Three men jailed in UK over Islamic State-inspired plot to kill hundreds of Jews
Three men were jailed for involvement and knowledge of a plot to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community in England, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) announced on Saturday.

The plot, if successful, would have been "one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to ever take place on UK soil," according to GMP Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts.

Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein were both found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism after a trial at Preston Crown Court and were sentenced to minimum sentences of 37 and 26 years, respectively.

Saadaoui's younger brother, Bilel Saadaoui, was additionally found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism and was sentenced to six years in prison.

According to GMP, Saadaoui masterminded the plot and recruited Hussein to participate.

Saadaoui, Hussein crafted plot through online communications
In late 2023, Saadaoui came into contact online with an individual he believed to be a fellow extremist, and after multiple messages were exchanged between the two, "it soon became clear that Saadaoui was keen to conduct a significant terrorist attack targeting Jewish people," GMP stated.

Saadaoui believed the individual could help him import automatic firearms to use in the terrorist attack and began developing the plot, going so far as to "conduct reconnaissance around Upper Broughton in Salford" and visit the port through which they believed the weapons would be smuggled.

According to a BBC report, Saadaoui planned to obtain four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns, and 900 rounds of ammunition for the firearms.

The individual sought out by Saadaoui for help with the plot turned out to be an undercover agent who played a "crucial role" in foiling Saadaoui and Hussein's would-be terrorist attack, according to GMP.


International Olympic Committee faces backlash for T-shirt featuring 1936 Berlin Games poster
The International Olympic Committee is facing criticism for selling a men’s T-shirt commemorating the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, which took place three and a half years after the Nazis came to power under Adolf Hitler.

The tee, which is sold out, features the original poster from the Berlin Games, designed by Franz Würbel, as part of the Olympic Shop’s Heritage Collection.

The collection “celebrates the art and design of the Olympic Games,” according to the Olympic Shop website. “Each edition of the Games reflects a unique time and place in history when the world came together to celebrate humanity.”

A committee spokesperson told CNN that the collection features all previous Games.

“While we of course acknowledge the historical issues of ‘Nazi propaganda’ related to the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, we must also remember that the Games in Berlin saw 4,483 athletes from 49 countries compete in 149 medal events,” the spokesperson said. “Many of them stunned the world with their athletic achievements, including Jesse Owens.”

Christine Schmidt, co-director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, told CNN that “the Nazis’ fascist and antisemitic propaganda infiltrated their promotion of the games, and many international Jewish athletes chose not to compete.”

“The IOC would be minded to consider whether any aesthetic appreciation of these games can be comfortably separated from the horror that followed,” she said.


Israeli bobsled team head's historic year
No matter what happens when Israel’s bobsled team hits the ice next week at the 2026 Winter Olympics, team captain Adam “AJ” Edelman has already had a year for the history books.

The 34-year-old Brookline, Massachusetts, native is the first Orthodox Jewish athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics, and now the first Israeli to qualify for the Games in two sports. He placed 28th in skeleton at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

But for Edelman, the 12-year journey that culminated in Israel’s first-ever Olympic bobsled appearance - which he has nicknamed “Shul Runnings,” a spin on the 1993 movie about Jamaica’s bobsled team - is about more than success on the track.

“The Olympics were never a goal,” Edelman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview prior to the Games.

“The Olympics were the tool, or the stepping stone, to get to the goal, which was to fundamentally redefine, or change, how our community, both the Israeli and the Jewish one, views investment into and the role of sport.”

Edelman’s journey began in 2013, when Israel attempted to recruit him to play for its national hockey team. Hockey had been Edelman’s first sport, which he played through college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the first Shabbat-observant player in program history.

Edelman discussed the idea with the long-time alumni director of his Jewish day school, Brookline’s Maimonides School. Mike Rosenberg pointed something out to Edelman that ultimately sparked a calling.

“AJ, no one from this school has ever gotten to the level of sport beyond high school that you’ve gotten to that didn’t go to, let’s say, [Yeshiva University] or Brandeis,” Edelman recalls Rosenberg, who died last year, telling him about the two historically Jewish colleges.

Edelman couldn’t believe that. Out of thousands of Maimonides alumni (including his older brother, Emmy award-winning comedian Alex Edelman), only Edelman, who called himself “not a very gifted athlete,” had reached that level? He had a theory as to why that might be.

“I came to the conclusion that it had to be a self-selection process,” Edelman explained. “That people were selecting out of sport as a journey before they got to that level. And why were they doing it? Because there was no priority placed on sport. 
It wasn’t something people in our community aspired to do or invest in.”

Edelman said the lack of investment in sports led to a lack of infrastructure and a dearth of role models for Jewish kids to look up to. He set out to change that - to “be the change.”


‘Dawson’s Creek’ star James Van Der Beek, dead at 48, had longstanding ties to Israel
James Van Der Beek, the beloved US star of the 1990s television show “Dawson’s Creek” who married his wife in Tel Aviv in 2010, has died.

Van Der Beek died on Wednesday at 48, following a years-long battle with colorectal cancer.

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” his family wrote on Instagram Wednesday. “He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”

Van Der Beek’s breakout role, playing 15-year-old Dawson Leery in the hit teen drama “Dawson’s Creek” in 1998, earned him widespread acclaim and cemented him as a teenage heartthrob of the early 2000s.

Van Der Beek, who was not Jewish, met his wife, Kimberly Brook, in 2009 while traveling in Tel Aviv at a restaurant on Bograshov Beach.

In August 2010, the pair returned to Israel where they were married at the Kabbalah Center in Tel Aviv and toured around the country during their honeymoon.

In a post on Instagram in 2021, Van Der Beek recalled his time in Israel and Hebron, a city in the West Bank, detailing shouts of “Mazel Tov” from Israelis as well as the arrest of their tour guide by Israeli police.

“This is by no means a complete picture of the situation, and I won’t pretend to understand the geopolitical complexities fueling this conflict…,” wrote Van Der Beek. “But there’s a lot of humanity on both sides of that razor wire, and whatever ‘solution’ fails to recognize that… isn’t a solution.”

Van Der Beek is survived by his wife and their six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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